Toyota Motor president Akio Toyoda Friday told the annual shareholders meeting the automaker would keep production Japanese production at 3m units a year even despite the strong yen and harsh competition in emerging markets, saying the automaker’s derived its competitive edge from operations in Japan.
“Manufacturing in Japan is the source of our competitive edge,” he said at the meeting at the company’s headquarters in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Kyodo News reported.
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“By protecting (domestic production) we will survive in the global competition,” he added.
Responding to a question querying the relatively high proportion of domestic manufacture compared with Nissan Motor and other automakers, executive vice president Atsushi Niimi said Japan had advanced technologies plus a strong dealer network and workforce and Toyota was aiming to sell around 1.5m units at home.
Shareholders approved fiscal 2011 remuneration for 27 directors which was slashed 42.8% from the previous year to JPY972m, reflecting reduced performance in the business year ended last 31 March.
The total paid to directors and auditors was down 36.7% to JPY1.2bn.
Shareholders also approved the appointment of 13 directors after the automaker reduced the count from 27 to 11 last year and later added two executive vice presidents.
The full-year dividend was set at JPY50 per share, the same as the previous term.
Kyodo News noted that a record 3,860 shareholders attended the Friday meeting, which lasted an hour and 46 minutes.
